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San Francisco, Fairmont Orchid...

HAWAII, Sep 4-5 - This is my first visit to Hawaii.  Think I am pulling your leg?  I know that many of you have followed my adventures over the years in Maui, Oahu or Lanai.  But I have never before been to the Big Island after which the whole archipelago was named.

And what an island Hawaii is.  Click on the maps above to enlarge.  That yellow arrow that connects the Kona airport to my hotel is about 20 miles (left map).  To get an idea about the vastness of Hawaii's largest and the youngest island, click on right map above.

"We are still growing," a native Hawaiian lady told me at the rental car counter, assuming the land's identity, as she proudly espoused the virtues of the island that's home to less than 150,000 people.  "This is the only island with an active volcano (marked on the left map above).  We are gaining several miles of shoreline every decade."

So the Big Island is still being born, you could say.  But first things first....

I left Phoenix early Tuesday morning to fly to Denver, from where we went on to San Francisco, the jump off point to Kona, Hawaii.  Why go east before heading west?  Ask the airline.  Guess because Denver is a United Air hub?  But so is San Francisco, you might point out.  You're right.  You can see now why I have given up long ago trying to make some sense out of airlines' routing and scheduling.

Anyway, the typical summer fog was rolling in from the Pacific before our mid-afternoon departure from San Francisco.  And it was a windy day.  Even the normally calm Bay had some whitecaps.

Five hours later, in Kona, Hawaii, the sun had already set even though it was only around 7PM local time.  I remembered then that Hawaii is the only other state besides Arizona that does not have daylight savings time.

By the time I made it to my hotel, it was pitch black.  I had no idea what the 20 miles between the airport and the Fairmont Orchid resort looked like (you'll see in Chapter 2).  Nor did I know that my hotel was actually surrounded by a golf course.  I know, that would be an unpardonable sin for a golfer, but I am not one.  So I don't feel guilty.

I did enjoy rising that first morning with the sun, and discovering not just beautiful golf course vistas from my balcony, but also lovely ocean views.  The two left photos were taken at sunrise; the two right hand ones around noon the same day.

I have also hand-drawn an outline of the island of Maui, with its big volcano.  The island is sometimes visible from my balcony, but too faintly to show up in a photo.

I also discovered that first morning that the hotel is located at an absolutely gorgeous spot...

"Welcome to paradise," the concierge, with whom I have been planning some activities for later in the week, greeted me in the lobby.  The leftmost shot is the view from the lobby toward a part of that paradise. 

Part of of the shoreline is rugged, part sand, but all of it is beautiful.  Around the hotel, there are also ornamental fish (second from right), as well as elegant clubby-looking facilities for evening entertainment, including several pool tables.  I made a mental note to come back here later on in the evening.

The Hike...

And then, I had a light breakfast looking out at the beach (leftmost photo), before setting out for about a five-mile hike around the resort.

The first thing I came across was a yoga class in progress (two middle shots).  They were using beach towels  instead of yoga mats, and doing it on the white sand in place of parquet floors.  The instructor invited me to join in.  "We could use some testosterone in the class," she joked.  But I passed, as tempting as it was.  Not a bad place to have a yoga practice, is it?  I told her I'd be back tomorrow, after I get to learn the lay of the land first. 

The next thing that startled me was that blonde in the middle of the rightmost picture.  I did a double take at first.  She looked like my elder daughter Tanja Anne's twin.  Since I knew positively that Tanja Anne was in Moscow at the time of this hike, I did not need to talk to the girl to make sure.  Still, she gave me a bit of a start, however unwittingly...

The coastline beyond my hotel continued to unfold in all its splendor...

...in some sections the shrubs were so thick, they made it seem as if one were walking through a green tunnel (two right photos).

Occasionally, I could see some coconut palms, with the fruit just about ready to be picked (leftmost shot).  Since it was windy, I kept looking up, though, as I did not want have one of the land on top of my head.  I remembered the great old tuart forest near Busselton, Western Australia, whose big limbs are known in the local folklore as 'widow makers.'  :-)

But sometimes it was hard to keep looking up with beautiful golden hibiscus flowers lining the path (two middle shots). Hawaii is the only place in the world where I have seen the hibiscus plants produce that color of flower.  And the changing coastline scenery also kept one's eyes darting around while soaking in the nature's beauty (second from right photo).

At another spot, I noticed several mature pomegranate trees, also bearing fruit nearly ready to pick (two left photos).  They were the biggest pomegranate trees I have ever seen.  I thought of my Western Australian neighbor Andrew who had planted acres of pomegranates on his property.  "So here, Andrew and Lindsay, these two photos are especially for you.  That's what your trees may look like in a few decades."  :-)

All along the walk, I kept seeing gorgeous flowers, even in the sections where a road separates the golf course from the moonscape that the lava deposits create (right photo).

I also learned something interesting about Hawaiian history during this hike.  Way back in ancient times, the natives used to construct these fish ponds in which they cultivated various kinds of fish.  The ponds are still filled with sea water and have wooden gates just like in ancient times.  And there are still plenty of fish in them, including the barracudas (second from left), an unnamed speckled fish (second from right), and some very interesting and very fast green iridescent fish (rightmost shot). 

I asked a couple of local fishermen, "what are the names of those green iridescent fish that look like sticks?"  The fisherman smiled.  Scratching himself above his ear, he replied almost apologetically, "well, we call them stick fish." :-)  We all laughed.  "I've seen stick insects before," I said, "but never stick fish.  Until now."

And now, a bit about that golf course...  (see the aerial photo - right, for an approximate hike route).

The Golf Course...

As I said, I don't play golf and don't know much about golf courses, although I live near the Grayhawk golf courses in Scottsdale.  I do like the look and the smell of golf courses, though.  Ours are teaming with wildlife... rabbits, quail, hawks, and yes, occasional snakes, too. It's the closest to nature we come in big cities anymore.  As I said, I don't know much about golf courses, but this one in Big Island has got to be one of the prettiest in the world...

This is, for example, the view a pro golfer gets before teeing off at this long par 3 hole (leftmost shot).  There is a deep gulley in between the tees and the green, though, as you can see in the second photo from the left.  So not much margin for error.  That's why they have the amateur tees set farther inland (second from right).  Still a challenging shot, but not as bad as the pros'.  And then for those golfers who really want to avoid the drink, they can have one at a fresh water well back of the tees, again done in the style of ancient Hawaiians - by filtering the salt out of sea water.  :-)

By the way, hope you've also noticed how brown and black that lava is from which the golf course was stolen?  That's what the landscape is all around it.

Here it is, a field of lava adjacent to the golf course.  Most of the western part of the Big Island is like this.  Golf courses and resorts are aberrations; man-made green oases amid the moon-like wasteland.  Occasionally, however, one does come across sections of the lava fields that actually look like the Sonoran desert in Arizona.  Even the shrubs and small trees are the same as back home, like the mesquite, for example, shown in the second photo from left.

Two hours later, I finally I made it back to the hotel and the pretty flora that surrounds it.  And in the evening, I listened to this live concert near the beach by a native Hawaiian (right).  You can also see the Fairmont Orchid resorts in an aerial photo (left) taken from a helicopter a few days later.

To be continued... CLICK HERE to go to CHAPTER 2...

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